I like my yogurt very, very thick and rather tangy. While tanginess is usually not a problem for homemade yogurt, thickness sometimes is. I experimented with various recipes before combining them into something that makes the perfect recipe for my taste. If you’d like a thinner yogurt, use less starter, or stir the finished curd to break up the proteins. If you prefer an even thicker finished product, strain your yogurt in some cheesecloth set over a bowl in the fridge. You’ll end up with a creamy yogurt cheese that’s similar to cream cheese.

I use Stonyfield Farm Organic Whole Milk Plain Yogurt as my starter, because it’s my favorite store-bought yogurt and has active cultures. I buy the big (32 oz.) containers and freeze the remainders in 1 1/4 cup portions to use in future yogurt batches, thawing it overnight in the fridge (not in the microwave!) to gently bring it to temperature.

Note: please use your own judgment and caution when making this recipe. While I have no problems eating this and feeding it to consenting, fully-informed adults, I probably wouldn’t feed it to small children without their parents’ OK.

Yogurt

Ingredients:

• 1 quart whole milk
• 1 cup powdered milk
• 1 1/4 cup plain full-fat yogurt with active cultures, at room temperature

Combine milk and milk powder in a medium heavy-bottomed sauce pan and gently heat on low. Cook for 45 minutes or until the temperature reaches approximately 115°. Remove from heat. Whisk a few tablespoons of the hot milk into the yogurt to warm it up; add yogurt to hot milk, whisking until yogurt is completely incorporated and mixture is of a uniform temperature. Pour into glass jars (these will be the yogurt’s final resting place), place in a warm, draft-free area, and cover tightly on all sides with heavy blankets. (Don’t forget to place a blanket underneath the jars.) Allow to sit overnight. Remove blankets and transfer jars to refrigerator. Chill and enjoy.

Will keep up to one week in the refrigerator.

Makes slightly more than 1 quart of yogurt.

If you’re looking for a quick, easy, and bite-sized appetizer recipe, look no further. These mini-tarts are deliciously simple to make and eat – if you’re in a real hurry, use store-bought pie crust dough and leftover baked chicken to speed things up.

Miniature Chicken Tarts

Ingredients:

• 2 pie crusts (use your favorite recipe or a pre-bought crust)
• 1 boneless skinless chicken breast, poached and cooled
• 8 oz. whole fresh mushrooms, cleaned
• 2 teaspoons butter
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 4 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Line mini-muffin cups with pie crust. Dock the bases of the cups with a fork and blind-bake. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken, mushrooms, and garlic, and sauté until chicken is lightly browned and all liquid from mushrooms has evaporated. Season. Deglaze pan with vinegar; continue to cook until pan is almost dry. Cool slightly.

Pulse cooled mixture in food processor with milk until a smooth, fluffy paste has formed. Spoon into prepared crusts and top with Parmesan cheese. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Makes 48 tarts.

Our household’s take on traditional Kashmiri Chicken: buttery and fragrant. Intense, decadent, and filling. I’m not sure how to describe this dish short of throwing out more strings of adjectives, so I’ll let this one speak for itself. Delicious over basmati rice with a side of homemade pita to mop up all that sauce. Yum.

Kashmiri Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1/4 lb (1 stick) butter
• 2/3 cup minced shallots
• 10 whole black peppercorns
• 2-3 whole cardamom pods
• 1 2-3″ cinnamon stick
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 6 chicken thighs with bones and skin
• 1 cup plain yogurt, plus extra for garnish

In a cast iron dutch oven or other wide, heavy pan with lid, melt butter over medium heat. Add shallots and spices; cook, stirring often, 1-2 minutes or until fragrant. Add chicken to pan, skin-side down, and cook until lightly browned. Move chicken to edges of pan to create well in center and slowly add yogurt to butter sauce, stirring briskly to prevent breaking. Reduce heat to low and cook 45 minutes to one hour, or until chicken separates easily from bone. Garnish with a dollop of extra yogurt just before serving.

Serves 4-6.

Bonus picture! (I’m so easily amused – I love the steam coming off the chicken.)

This is a guest chef post from Kate of Om Shanti Handcrafts; you can find her original post of this recipe, along with adorable pictures of her cats, at her blog. She also makes spectacular lip balms, bath salts, jewelry, and other pretty and/or pleasantly-scented things – I encourage you to visit her Etsy shop (her tangerine vanilla lip balm is to die for!)

Many thanks to Alys for the original recipe and to Kate for her moderations, and for allowing me to post this here. This is an excellent example of how recipes evolve as they pass from person to person. Kate’s comments are in italics below.

Alys’s Tomato Bread Soup

• 1 lb. Italian sausage links (I’ve also used loose sausage just fine)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 5 or 6 cloves garlic, sliced or minced (though it’s hard to have too much)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp basil
• 2 tbsp parsley
• 1 tbsp rosemary
• other herbs as desired (oregano, marjoram, thyme, savory…)
• 1 6oz can tomato paste
• 2 or 3 14-1/2 oz cans diced tomatoes (or cut up fresh if you’ve got em)
• 1 48 oz can chicken broth (or from scratch — easy and AWESOME)
• 1 tbsp dry sherry or wine
• 1/2 tsp salt or bouillion (I use this only if I’m using my own chicken broth — otherwise there’s already plenty of salt)
• dash pepper
• 1 loaf bread (a good, sturdy loaf of Italian or French — bread with some heft!) (I’ve used Philly soft pretzels with awesome results)
• shredded parmesan cheese

Note that all measurements are approximate, and should be adjusted to taste.

Cook sausages at least halfway done, allow to cool enough to handle, and slice.

Meanwhile, sauté onions in olive oil for a couple minutes, add garlic and sauté a little longer, until garlic is done.

Before garlic turns brown, stir in herbs and tomato paste. Add diced tomatoes, sliced sausages, broth, and wine. Add salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, and simmer until the sausage is done through.

While soup simmers, tear or cut the bread into crouton-sized pieces.

Place a handful of bread into each bowl, ladle soup over, and garnish with parmesan. Add a drizzle of good, fruity olive oil and/ or freshly ground pepper if you like.

Hummus! When I alluded to it in the pita bread recipe I posted a short time ago, my intention was to post the accompanying hummus recipe as an immediate follow-up. Meatloaf and toaster pastries somehow snuck their way in before the hummus settled in to the “you should post this now” section of my head. Ah, well.

There’s not much to say about homemade hummus other than to note that it kicks the ass of anything you can buy in a supermarket. It’s completely worth the time and effort that goes into it, although you can lessen that a bit if you buy your tahini paste (if that’s the case, omit the sesame seeds, sesame oil, salt, and water and substitute 2-3 tbsp of the paste).

Hummus

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp sesame seed
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1-2 teaspoons hot water
• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice (to taste)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Special equipment:

• Mortar and pestle
• Food processor

Process sesame seeds and salt with mortar and pestle until seeds begin to break down. Add sesame oil and hot water as needed and continue to process until the mixture is smooth and thick. This is your tahini paste.

Place tahini, chickpeas, cumin, garlic, and olive oil in food processor and pulse until smooth. Add lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste. Move to bowl; cover and refrigerate for one hour to allow flavors to blend. Serve with pita, crackers, veggies, or a spoon.

I can only imagine that my use of ketchup in this recipe might offend (or at the very least confuse) anyone not accustomed to the vinegar-laden dishes of the Pennsylvania Dutch. I’ll even state for the record that I put ketchup on my eggs, on my toast, and even put it on steak when I was young (sorry, Dad.) I’ve had some great meatloaf in my time — my mother-out-law’s is killer — but this dish of ketchup-laden decadence will always be my favorite. How can you top the gooey tomatoey brown sugar topping?

Meatloaf

For meatloaf:

• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef
• 1 cup Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs
• 1 cup tomato ketchup
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

For topping:

• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup ketchup

Combine all meatloaf ingredients in large bowl and toss with fingers until well-combined. Press mixture into standard loaf pan and bake at 350° F for one hour.

Place brown sugar in small bowl and break apart any lumps. Add ketchup and stir briskly with fork until mixture is thick and homogenous. About halfway though cooking, spread topping on top of meatloaf.

Serves 6-8.